Suspended ceiling



Oct'. 16 1923.

E. E. HALL susfENDED CEILING Filed May 28, 1919 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Ct. '16 51923. 1,7m@

E2. E. HALL SUSPENDED CEILING Filed May 28 1919 4I5 Sheets-Sheet 2 E. E. HALL SUSPENDED CEILING Filed May 28. 1919 s sheets-sheet in @IL Patented ct. i6, 1923.

UITED ERIC E. HALL, 0F CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

SUSPENDED CEILING.

Application filed May 2B, 1919. Serial No. 300,343.

To all whom it may concern.'

Be it known that I, ERIC E. HALL, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Suspended Ceilings, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact specification. K

My invention is concerned with a novel suspended ceiling which, as a whole, has better, simpler and cheaper construction than any with which I am acquainted.

It is concerned with certain novel clips that I lnay employ in the construction of said ceiling.

To illustrate my invention, I annex hereto three sheets of drawings in which the same reference characters are used-to designate identical parts in all the figures of which Fig. 1 1s a sectional view illustrating my novel construction as applied to a ceiling enii-Lv ploying plaster board;

Figs. 2 and 3 are vertical sectional and top plan views respectively, taken on the lines 2-2 and 3-3 of Fig. 1, respectively;

F ig 4 is a perspective view of one end of my novel suspension rod;

Fig. 5 is a view similar to Fig. 1, but showing my invention as applied to a ceiling in which expanded metal is employed;

Figs. 6 and 7 are vertical sectional and top plan views respectively on the lines 6--6 and 7-7 respectively of Fig. 5;

Fig. 8 is a top plan view of a novel fastening clip which constitutes a portion of my invention;

Fig. 9 is a perspective view of the same after it has been bent into the shape it has when in use;

Fig. 10 is a top plan view of a thirdl and preferred form of my invention in which a novel slab construction is employed; and

Figs. 11, 12 and 13 are vertical sections on an enlarged scale on the lines 11-11, 12-12 and 13-13 respectively of Fig. 10, Fig'. 12 being on a smaller scale than Figs. 11 and 13.

My invention is intended primarily to be employed with suspended ceilings of the typewhich are used in concrete floor construction, and I have illustrated in Figs. 1 and 5 the customary concrete girders 20 preferably provided with reinforcing rods 21, which girders extend transversely of the main beams or girders and beneath and preferably formed integral withthe thinner body of the floor. Embedded in these beams at the time they are constructed are the inserts 22, which have enlarged or spreading heads 23 to hold them more firmly in place, and have the threaded recesses 24 in their bottoms, into which recesses are screwed the threaded upper ends of the novel suspension rods 25, the lower end of which is best shown in Fig. 4, These inserts 22 may be of the general character and employed in the manner illustrated in my Patent No. 1,018,490, dated February 27, 1912.

Where plaster boards 26 are employed as the horizontal connecting sheets or members, as shown in Figs. 1, 2 and 3 I employ the ribs or channels 27, which consist of metallic strips generallyy U'-shaped in cross-section but having the comparatively wide horizontal flanges 28 at the top, beneath which I flanges the edges of the sheets of plaster board 26 extend. The channel has cut there- -in at suitable intervals the recesses 29, and the suspension rods 25 have formed on the lower end thereof the horizontal portions 30,

which lit down into the bottom of the channels 27 and are secured in place so that the channels will be supported by the suspension rods, preferably by the clips 31, best seen in Figs. 8 and 9. These clips are stamped out of sheet metal and made of the generally rectangular outline shown with the four cuts 32 in the ends thereof to form the two tongues 33 which in use will be bent downwardly as shown in Fig. 5. The sides of the blank outside of the cuts 32 are preferably bent up as shown in Fig. 9, and their upper edges form supports for the under side of the sheets of plaster board 26, the clips 31 being passed bodily through the recesses 29 above the portions 30 of the suspension rods, so as to be supported thereby, the tongues 33 being bent down as shown in Figs. 2 and 9 to hold the clip in place. By this construction, it will be seen that the runner or channel 27 is thus suspended securely from the ceiling. With the construction thus described, the channel is not held as securely as it might be to prevent tipping, and to further secure it I provide the suspending rods 25 with the short upturned portion 31, which is high enough to bring the flattened horizontal portionv 35 extending at right angles therefrom just above the flanges 28,

and I provide the flattened portion 35 with I the thin downwardly turned flange 36, which is adapted to catch over the edge of the flange 28, and is thin enough so that the extreme lower edge 37 may be readily turned up against the under side of the edge of the flange 28, as seen in Fig. 2, by a pair of pliers so as more securely to anchor the channel 2T to the rods 25 lVith the construction shown, it will be obvious that there is a very considerable rigidity holding the channels 27 at right angles to the rods 25 and preventing their turning about any vertical axis.

It will be readily understood that with the construction shown, the sheets of plaster board 2G can be extended over the entire ceiling surface and thus be supported from the channels 27, which preferably extend transversely of the girders 20, by the rods 25 which are preferably arranged in parallel rows, one row for each girder. lVith the parts thus suspended the body of plaster 38 can be readily applied by the plasterers in the customary manner.

In the modification illustrated in Figs. 5, G and 7, instead of employing the plaster board, I substitute therefor the sheets of expanded metal 39, which are secured to the pencil bar 40, which takes the place of the channels 27 in the other construction thus far described. The expanded metal 39 is secured at intervals by the wires 41 to the pencil bars 40, and these pencil bars are supported from the hangers or rods 25 by bending the flattened portions 35 around the pencil bars, as seen in Fig. 7. For this pnrpose, I may design the lower ends of the suspension rods 25 somewhatl differently to make the portions 35 thinner and more easily curved around the pencil bars. When the expanded metal 39 has thus been suspended from the girders 20 by the suspending rods 25 and the pencil bars 40, the body 38 of plaster can be applied in the customary manner in which it is applied to expanded metal.

In Figs. 10 to 13, I have illustrated a preferred form of construction which embodies a further invention of mine, to wit, the novel slabs 42, which may be of tile, concrete, or any similar substance which will preferably have a greater strength than the plaster board 26, which they are designed to supersede in this type of construction. The slabs 42 may be of desired size, such for instance as 12 inches by 18 inches, and the body portion thereof may be a quarter of an inch thick, with longitudinal dovetail tongues 43 extending longitudinally thereof on the under side., for a depth equal to the thickness of the body of the slab. These tongues may be placed say an inch apart, and the outermost ones are sufficiently far from the edge, so that the flanges 28, which in this form may be a trifle wider, will have a large available supporting surface for the edges of the slabs 42 Without interfering with the tongues 43. For the saine purpose, where the ends of the slabs rest on the flanges 28, as seen at the left hand of Fig. 13, the ends of the tongues 43 terminate short of the ends of the body of the slabs 42 a distance equal to the distance of the tongues 43 from the longitudinal edges ol the slab 42. The ends of the tongues 43 are undercut in the saine manner as the sides ot' the tongues 43 so that when the plaster 38 is linally applied, it will be held in place by the re-entrant angles formed by the sides and ends of the tongues 43.` The. slabs 42 are preferably provided with the shallow grooves 44 located just above one of the edges of the tongues 43, so that if it is necessary at any time to use a narrower slab, it can be readily broken off to make the required width by fracturing it along the line of the groove 44. The channels 27 are secured in place in this construction by the clips 31 in the same manner as before, and to prevent the slabs 42 from being raised as the plaster 38 is applied to the underside I may employ either one or both of two expedients, as illustrated in Fig. 13. To hold the slabs down, I may employ a quick setting form of plaster 45, made principally or entirely of plaster of Paris, which is applied, as shown in Fig. 13, so as to till up the space between the adjacent tongues and around the channel 27, and thus the plaster 45 entering the re-entrant angles at the ends or sides of the tongues 43 will prevent the slabs 42 lifting when the plaster 38 is finally applied. I preferably employ however, the Wire clips 46, which are bent out of a piece of wire to produce a double wire construction of a generally T shape, in which the head tits on the edges of the slabs 42, as shown in Fig. 13, and the vertical portion extends down through the recess 29 in the channel 27, and has the two ends turned in opposite directions so as to engage the lowermost portion of the channels on both sides of the recess 29 through which it is extended; These horizontally turned ends of the special clip 46 can be secured to the channel as lirmly as may be deemed necessary,thus acting to prevent the rising of the slabs 42 when the plaster 38 is applied.

W'hile I have shown and described my invention as embodied in the form which I at present consider best adapted to carry out its purposes it will be understood that it is capable of modifications, and that I do not desire to be limited in the interpretation ofthe following claims except as may be nef cessitated by the state of the prior art.

Vlvhat I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is: f

1. In a suspended ceiling, the combination with a plurality of parallel channel members open at the top and having lateral` flanges, of rows of suspension rods supportmeans to secure the feet of the rods in the channels, and sheets of plastic material connecting the channels, for the purpose described.

2. In a suspended ceiling, the combination with a plurality of parallel channel members open at the top and having lateral flanges, of rows of suspension rods supported at their upper ends and having their feet composed of horizontal portions extending into the channels and along the bottoms thereof and flattened portions extending horizontally just over the tops of the channels and clamped to the outer edges of the flanges, means to secure the feetI of the rods in the channels, and sheets of plastic material connecting the channels, for the purpose described.

3. In a suspended ceiling, the combination with a plurality of elongated horizontal suspended members, of rows of suspension rods supported at their upper ends (one row for each member) and having feet extending along said suspended members and flattened toe portions adapted to extend transversely and to be secured to said horizontal suspended members, and sheets of plastic mate rial connecting the suspended members and supported thereby along the length of two sides thereof, for the purpose described.

4. In a suspended ceiling, the combination with a suspended channel member open at the top and having perforated sides, of a row of' suspension vrods supported at their upper ends and having feet extending parallel to and in the bot-tom of the channel, and sheet metal clips passed through the perforations of the channel member above the feet of' the rods and having tongues bent down to engage the sides of the channel.

5. In a suspended ceiling, the combination with plural rows of suspension rods supported at their upper ends, of horizontal suspended members secured to the lower ends of the rods and having horizontal flanges, slabs extending between the suspended members having their edges resting on the flanges and having dovet-ailed ribs on their under faces, means for holding the edges of the slabs on the flanges of' the horizontal suspended members, vand plaster secured on the under sides of said slabs, substantially as and for the purpose described.

6. As a new and useful article of manufacture, a clip composed of sheet metal curved in an open trough-like form with tongues cut in the ends from the bottom of the trough to bend down, for the purpose described. c

In witness whereof', I have hereunto set my hand and affixed my seal, this 26th day of May, A. D. 1919.

ERIC E. HALL. [1.. s]

Witness:

JOHN HOWARD MGELROY. 

